And my welcome to Winston's.
It's good to see you all out today. Glad the Lord directed
you to this altar where the gospel should be preached here, as it's
already been preached by our brother Bill. As you can see,
my text today is going to be Hebrews 13, and those four or
five verses right there, 9 through 14. We have an altar. Let's start our reading in Hebrews
13 and verse 7 just to give you, just to set this in context a
little bit. He says, remember them which
have the rule over you who have spoken unto you the word of God.
That's the rule he's talking about. Those who preach the gospel
to you, those who encourage you in the gospel. whose faith follow
considering the end of their conversation. Jesus Christ, the
same yesterday and today and forever. Paul exhorts the readers
of this epistle to remember those who preach the gospel. Follow
their faith and remember the end. Remember the manner of their
life and conversation. What is that manner of life?
Verse 8, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. Jesus Christ in his person and
all that he accomplished for his people. Now let's look at
Hebrews 13 and verse 9. I said the writer was Paul. That
could be controversial in some circles, but I think it was Paul.
It could be someone else. I'll call him Paul. So I want
you all to know, just to know that as a word of caution for
me. Look at Hebrews 13, 9. Paul writes
here, be not carried away with diverse and strange doctrines,
for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace,
not with meats which have not profited them that have been
occupied therein. You see, I underlined two words
there. That word diverse simply means various. It means many. It means different. So very many
different ideas that men have about God, about Christ, about
salvation, about why this world exists. So many different ideas. Somebody said there were over
2,600, maybe more, and there would be more. That's just the
recorded denominations of believers. so-called believers in this world,
26 different ones, various ideas that men have about God. But
the only ideas that really matter are those that can be backed
up by the Word of God. That's the only ones that matter.
And that word strange means not weird, it means strange to the
Word of God. One of the definitions of strange
is new or unheard of. God taught Adam how fallen humanity
was to approach God. Now Abel came by the blood sacrifice
and he was accepted, but Cain immediately introduced strange
doctrine. He came by the works of his own
hands and he was rejected. So strange is Strange to the
Word of God. One of the most popular doctrines
of our days that is strange to the Word of God is the idea that
many will perish for whom Christ died. See, none can perish for
whom Christ died because His death has saved them from their
sins. His death has brought forth a righteousness by which God
declares them righteous, so no sinner Christ died for can perish. So to think they can is strange
to the Word of God. He says it's a good thing that
the heart be established with grace. Now this of course speaks
of true grace, free grace, the grace God's word teaches. And we'll be talking about grace
as we do in every gospel message all down through here. Grace
is simply salvation conditioned on and accomplished by Christ
alone. That's what grace means in the
scriptures. And we'll be talking about that. And that heart established
with grace is contrasted with a heart that's established with
meats. Now meats would be Particular to this context would be the
meats that these Hebrew hearers here would understand from the
Old Testament. They had various meats and they
got caught up in offerings and how they offered and all that.
But it really is applying to anything else but the imputed
righteousness of Christ gaining or maintaining the salvation
of a sinner. That's what meats refers to.
Such hearts who are caught up in things like that, meats, are
void of true grace. Look at Hebrews 13 in verse 10.
He says here, we have an altar. So you see where I got my title
from. We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which
serve the tabernacle. Now an altar is where you place
what you expect God to receive you on It's where you place what
you expect God to receive you based on. In other words, when
you come to God with an offering, you're expecting God to receive
you. When you come to God to worship, you expect Him to receive
your worship. Well, what is the basis of your
expectation? Well, it's whatever you've got
on your altar. That's what it is. The altar is what sets your
offering or sacrifice apart. It's what gives your offering
value. And the Old Covenant, that altar
is what held the sacrifice by which sinners were accepted temporarily
under that covenant. And in verse 10 here, we have
a strong contrast. It speaks of some who have an
altar, and it speaks of some who have no right to eat at that
altar. We who have this altar are those
whose hearts are established with grace. We are those who
rest our whole salvation in Christ alone. We eat or feed from our
altar. We are sustained by our altar. Our altar is Christ. Christ is
the God-man. His deity gives infinite value
to everything he does. We come to God based on Christ's
imputed righteousness alone, and we expect to be accepted
before God based on God's testimony. Look at 1 Corinthians 10 and
17. It says, for we being many are one bread and one body, for
we are all partakers of that one bread. See, we have that
one altar. That one bread is Christ, who
is the bread of life. All right, why do some have no
right to our altar? Because they serve the tabernacle.
In other words, they are partakers of, they feed from, and are sustained
by, not our altar, but another altar. Look at 1 Corinthians
9.13. Do you not know that they which minister about holy things
live of the things of the temple? The priests that went about the
everyday duties of keeping the temple and offering the sacrifices,
they live of the things of the temple. And they which wait at
the altar are partakers of that altar. So we see how the priests
served the tabernacle and were partakers of the altar they served.
But serving the tabernacle, it's easy to see that in the Old Covenant.
The priests, they did all this service, and it's easy to see
that they were partakers of that altar. But serving the tabernacle
is not limited to the priests under the Mosaic Covenant, like
the word meats is not limited to the meats of that Old Covenant.
This term applies to anyone in any generation who finds acceptance
with God or who finds spiritual nourishment in anything but the
body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we're going to get
a better understanding of these things as we move on through
this lesson, so I'm not going to go into a lot of detail right
there on that. Look only at Hebrews 13 and verse 11. He said, For the bodies of those
beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high
priest for sin are burned without the camp. This verse is given an explanation
of the contrast that we saw there in verse 10. We have an altar
to which they have no right who serve the tabernacle. Well this
is explaining that. It's alluding to the specific
sacrifice which was offered under the mosaic economy by the high priest
on that day of atonement. A specific sacrifice. The one
offered on the day of atonement. To understand this, we have to
learn a little bit about the law that's in offer. Now, we
don't ever go back in the Old Testament to learn in Leviticus
about the laws that were given to the children of Israel in
order to try to do those laws. We don't go back there for that.
But we do go back there to learn of Christ because everything
back there is pointing in some aspect to some aspect of the
person, the offices of the work of Christ. So we go back to learn
that, and we need to learn a little bit about this sin offering here.
First of all, let's look at the sin offering in general here
in Leviticus chapter 6, verses 25, 6, and 29. Leviticus 6, 25. He said, speaking to Aaron and
to his son, saying, this is the law of the sin offering. In the
place where the burnt offering is killed shall the sin offering
be killed before the Lord. It is most holy. The priest that
offers it for sin shall eat it. In the holy place shall it be
eaten, in the court of the tabernacle of the congregation. All the
males among the priests shall eat thereof. it is most holy. Now this is spoken of ordinary
sin offerings, daily and weekly sin offerings. They sacrifice
twice a day, so there was a sin offering before them every day.
The priest who offered that offering, the males of the household of
the priest, were to eat this offering. The priests were those
who waited on the altar, and they're typical of the church.
In other words, those in every generation that wait on the Lord.
Their eating of this offering made them partakers of the altar
on which it was offered. The blood of their sacrifice
gave them access to God. It enabled them to worship God,
and the body of their sacrifice nourished them physically and
temporally. So they worshiped God by it,
and they were nourished temporally and physically. That was the
general sin offering. But the sin offerings, the specific
sin offering offered on the Day of Atonement. Let me tell you
about that Day of Atonement a little bit. There were two offerings
offered. One for the high priest and his
household, the first one. And then there was an offering
for the people. Two different offerings made.
Both are called the sin offering. And the difference between this
offering on the Day of Atonement and the one that was offered
generally every day, the one offered every day was to be eaten.
The one offered on the Day of Atonement was not to be eaten,
but taken outside the camp and burned in its entirety. Look
at Leviticus 6 and verse 30. He says, and no sin offering
where any of the blood is brought into the tabernacle of the congregation
to reconcile with it in the holy place, that's of holy of holies,
so that would be the day of atonement because the high priest only
went in there once a year on that day of atonement. So no
sin offering whose blood is taken into that holy place shall be
eaten, it shall be burnt with fire. This is referring, as I
said, specifically to that sin offering offered on the Day of
Atonement. The sacrifice was not to be eaten, but burned outside
the city. Look at Leviticus 16 and verse
27. And the bullet for the sin offering
and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to
make atonement in the holy place, shall one carry forth without
the count, and they shall burn in the fire their skins, their
flesh, and their dung. In other words, Burn it in its
entirety. Don't leave any of it left. Now let's be sure we understand
this type here. I'm going to just try to give
this to you in our language. Throughout the year when the
sin offering was sacrificed, its blood was sprinkled on the
altar to make an atonement for that altar. That altar was not
in the Holy of Holies, but out in the outer court. So the blood
was sprinkled on that altar and the fat of that sacrifice was
burned on the altar for a sweet-smelling savor to God, and its flesh was
eaten by the priests who provided the service. The priests were
nourished by the sacrifice. They were partakers of that altar
which they served. But on the Day of Atonement,
once a year, when the high priest entered into the Holy of Holies
with the blood of the sin offering, There's that important distinction
made, the flesh of that sacrifice, whose blood made an atonement
in that Holy of Holies, the flesh of that sacrifice was not eaten.
It was burned up outside the camp in its entirety. What all
this is teaching us, we're going to learn more about as we go
on through here. But the first teaching that set
forth here is that this, what we're looking at, that sin offering,
which was eaten during the year, but not on that day of atonement.
See, that blood that was taken into the holy place, That beast
had to be burned completely outside the camp. As we'll see in our
text here, Christ suffered without the gate. He didn't suffer inside
that law, inside that city, inside that tabernacle, but he was burned
without the camp. So, this is setting forth a type
of Christ here. That's what we're looking at.
Now, everything commanded in the Mosaic Covenant was designed
to picture and typify some aspect of the person, the offices, and
work of Christ. Moses was commanded by God, you
be sure you pay attention to the details that I gave you in
the mount. When you make this tabernacle,
every detail, because every part of it was pointing to some aspect
of Christ, His person and His work. This type in our text is
just one of the particulars. There were hundreds of types,
and we haven't scratched the surface on learning what all
those types are, but this is just one of the particulars.
Christ was always the Messiah who would come. He was God in
human flesh. He would come and fulfill all
these pictures and types. He was always the one who would
come and abolish that covenant by way of fulfillment. Let's
look on it in our text at Hebrews 13 and verse 12. Christ was the
one who would fulfill and abolish that covenant by way of fulfillment.
That was what I was talking about back there. Hebrews 13, 12, wherefore
Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood
suffered without the gate. Now wherefore is referring back
to verse 11 back there where we saw the type of Christ. that
body that was burned outside the camp. It's referring back
there. It means in the same manner, Christ in the same manner. He's
the anti-type, see? He's the one who would fulfill
the type. He's the answer to and the fulfiller of all the
types in the old covenant. Christ told those of his generation
that he would fulfill all the law. They said, you've come to
destroy the law. He said, no, I didn't come to
destroy it. Look at Matthew 5 and verse 17. Think not that I am
come to destroy the law, or the prophets. I am not come to destroy,
but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till
heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise
pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Now Christ is talking
about his own fulfillment of the law. First of all, in its
demand for obedience. But he's also talking about fulfilling
that law in every type. every part of it that pictured
and typified him. Christ didn't make his sacrifice
in the tabernacle. There was a tabernacle there
on earth, but he didn't make a sacrifice there. He didn't
make his sacrifice on the altar in that temple. He didn't need
another to present his sacrifice to God. Christ is the fulfiller
of all the types. His sinless, spotless humanity,
that's his sacrifice. His infinite deity was the altar
that set His sacrifice apart and gave it value to God. He's
the high priest who offered it to God. He's all, see? He's the
sacrifice. He's the altar. He's the high
priest that offered it. His blood didn't give Him access
into the Holy of Holies, into that temple. Christ's blood gave
Him access into heaven itself, into the very presence of God.
Look at Hebrews 9 and verse 14. The verse before this says, if
the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling
the unclean sanctify to the purifying of the flesh, which it did, it
enabled them to come back into the camp and worship God. How
much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God? Christ went into
heaven itself. He offered his sacrifice to God
himself. Look back at Hebrews 13, 12. So we're for Jesus also. He's
the fulfiller of the types. Now we're going to look at this
phrase in the middle that he might sanctify the people with
his own blood a little later on. But let's, let's, let's look
at this first. We're for Jesus also, just like
the types who were burned without the gate, suffered without the
gate. Golgotha, where Christ was crucified,
was a hill outside the city of Jerusalem, just a little ways
outside the city. And Christ suffered there, not
in the city, but outside, for two reasons. First, in order
to fulfill the types of the Old Covenant. See, he had to fulfill
everything that was written of him. By suffering without the
gate, Christ separated himself from that Mosaic covenant. He
was born a Jew, and he was under that in his daily walk. He was circumcised. He kept the
law. went to the temple on the holy
days. He kept that law because he was born a Jew. But he separated
himself from that covenant. He fulfilled all the pictures
and types under that covenant, fulfilling his own prophecy,
which we read back there in Matthew 5, till heaven and earth pass,
one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law. till
all be fulfilled. Christ separated himself from
the sacrifices under the Mosaic Covenant, suffering without the
gate, and he abolished that covenant by way of fulfillment. There was a clear sign that the
Mosaic Covenant was abolished right after Christ surrendered
his life to the Father. Look at Matthew 27 and verse
50. Jesus, when he had cried again
with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost, and, behold, the veil
of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and
the earth did quake, and the rocks rent. That veil that separated
the Holy of Holies from the other part of the tabernacle, where
the high priest went in behind that veil once a year, not without
blood, that veil was cut in two from top to bottom. And it was
thick. Some say maybe as much as a foot
thick. So it took quite an act to get
that done. But the Holy Spirit testified
concerning the veil in that temple. Look at Hebrews 9 and verse 6.
He said, Now when these things were thus ordained, the priest
went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of
God. That was the ordinary sacrificing daily and weekly. But into the
second went the high priest alone, once every year, not without
blood, which he offered for himself and for the heirs of the people.
The Holy Ghost thus signifying that the way into the holiest
of all was not yet made manifest while as yet the first tabernacle
was still standing. As long as there was a priest
offering a sacrifice in the holy of holies, taking blood in there
to be accepted by God, we know that the way into heaven itself
had not yet been made manifest. The holiest of all is heaven
itself. When Christ entered heaven itself with his own blood, he
fulfilled all the types of the Mosaic covenant, and that covenant
was abolished by way of fulfillment. This is the first reason that
Christ suffered without the gate, in order to fulfill all the types
and pictures in that old covenant, which pointed to Him, and spoke
of Him, and typified of Him. Look back at Hebrews 13, 12,
and we'll look at that middle phrase now. It says, Wherefore
Jesus also, that in order that He might sanctify the people
with His own blood, suffered without the gate. This is the
second reason Christ suffered without the gate. In order to
sanctify His people with His own blood. Sanctify means to
set apart. It means to make holy. Christ's
blood is what sanctified His people. Look at Hebrews 10 and
verse 10. It says, By the witch will we
are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus once for
all. And every priest standeth daily,
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifice, which could
never take away sins. It's not possible that the blood
of bulls and goats should take away sins, but look at verse
12. Talking about Christ, after he had offered one sacrifice
for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God from henceforth
expecting till his enemies be made his footstool, for by one
offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Christ's
blood removed all legal guilt and all legal defilement from
those he represented. It set them apart unto holiness,
unto righteousness, unto infinite, unchangeable justification. In other words, his blood answered
every demand of God's justice against those he died for, and
it provided them a righteousness by which God declares them righteous
forever in his sight. The goal of Christ's suffering
without the gate was in order that he might provide his people
something that the law of Moses couldn't provide them. It hadn't
provided them. It was not possible that that
law provide them. Look at Romans 8 and verse 3.
Or what the law could not do in that it was weak to the flesh.
No weakness in the law. The weakness here is in the flesh.
God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and
for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the
flesh but after the spirit. What is it that the law could
not do? Well, I think there are two things
the law couldn't do. First of all, the law could not
end a sinner's condemnation. It could not end a sinner's liability
to punishment. It couldn't end God's just demand
for the eternal death of every soul at sin. The law couldn't
do that. And the law could not provide for sinners a righteousness
based upon which God could declare those sinners righteous in His
sight. In other words, the law could not provide a sinner justification. It couldn't do that. That law
wasn't designed to do that. Paul said that law was a schoolmaster
for one purpose, to teach men of Christ. A schoolmaster unto
Christ. But that law could not provide
a sinner justification. Look at Acts 13 and verse 38.
He says, be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren,
that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sin,
and by him all that believe are justified from all things from
which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. The law
couldn't end a sinner's condemnation. The law couldn't provide a sinner
the righteousness he needs to stand and for God to declare
him righteous. But Christ's death did both. The sins of those Christ died
for are purged. In other words, they're washed
clean. They don't exist in God's sight anymore. Christ's blood
purged them. Look at Hebrews 1 and verse 3.
He's talking about Christ here, who being the brightness of his
glory and the express image of his person and upholding all
things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged
our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.
What the law couldn't do, Christ's blood did. Christ's blood took
away sin. It ended condemnation. It ended
legal defilement. There's no condemnation, no liability
to punishment to those who are in Christ, none. They're not
facing the slightest possibility that God's justice will ever
demand their eternal death. They've already suffered the
equivalent of eternal death in the person of Christ, their substitute. So Christ ended the condemnation
of his people. He put away the sins of his people.
Also, Christ's blood didn't just make redemption a possibility. Christ's blood obtained redemption. Look at Hebrews 9 and verse 12.
Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood
he entered in once into the holy place, into heaven, having obtained
eternal redemption for us. Christ suffered without the gate
in order to provide his people that which would deliver them
from the eternal death they deserved and provide an infinite righteousness
that would sustain them not temporarily as a sacrifice as those priest
ate, but which would sustain them eternally. We have an everlasting,
unchangeable standing of righteousness in the sight of God, based on
Christ's imputed righteousness alone. Christ is the bread of
life. His flesh is meat indeed, and
his blood is drink indeed. Look at John 6 and verse 48.
Christ said, I'm the bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna
in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh
down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. And look on at John 6 verse 53,
B and 55. He said, Except you eat the flesh
of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last
day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. Now when Christ told this right
here, Many left Him. That's a hard saying they said.
How can we eat the flesh of the Son of Man? How can we drink
His blood? Well, of course, they were thinking naturally and physically,
and Christ is speaking spiritually. He's not talking about literally
eating His flesh or literally drinking His blood. Christ's
blood satisfied the justice of God. His flesh and blood provide
the righteousness that sustains his people through all eternity.
He put away sin by the sacrifice of himself and he brought forth
that righteousness by which God is just to justify otherwise
ungodly sinners. Eating his flesh and drinking
his blood is finding all your confidence in what he accomplished
by his obedience unto death. The priests under the Mosaic
Covenant, who were representative, as I said earlier, of the church,
representative of the people of God, those priests were sustained
in a temporal way by the flesh and blood of that daily sin offering.
The blood of their sacrifice sprinkled on the altar, atoned
for the altar, and it made their sacrifice acceptable to God.
The flesh of that sacrifice, that daily sacrifice, provided
their daily nourishment. But all that was a type, remember?
That was just a type. More is needed for sinners to
be sustained eternally. Eternal acceptance and eternal
nourishment require the infinitely valuable body and blood of the
God-man. It requires the death of one
who is God himself, God in human flesh. It requires the righteousness
Christ's obedience unto death established in which God charges
to the account, imputes to his people. Christ suffered without
the gate first in order to fulfill all that was pictured and typified
of Him in that Mosaic covenant. And He suffered without the gate
second in order to sanctify His people with His own blood. He
answered every demand of God's justice against His people and
provided them the one sacrifice based upon which God can forever
declare them righteous in His sight. Look on to Hebrews 13,
13. Let us go forth, therefore, unto him without the count, bearing
his reproach." To worship Christ, sinners must leave the Mosaic
Law in all its aspects. We must leave the religion of
requirements and conditions. Which religion? Just an extension
of that law. I said there were some 2,600
different denominations. They all have just a little different
twist on something, just a little variation of interpretation,
or a little difference of a law they've interpreted. That's how
most of them separated from whoever they were worshipping with. to start with, but to worship
Christ, we have to leave all that. The salvation of God is
a salvation in which Christ has met all the conditions. He left
no conditions for his people. to meet. The Word of God does
not command sinners to do anything in order to be saved, to do anything
in order to find acceptance with God. The Word of God commands
sinners to come to Christ. Like Noah, find grace in the
sight of the Lord. Find the salvation that's in
Christ alone and hook up with those who preach that salvation
and that Savior. Based on Christ's work, let us
leave that law. Let us leave the religion of
requirements and conditions. Let us go forth into Christ outside
that camp, because that camp is leading to death. Let us bear
His reproach. Reproach means shame. It means
disgrace. Look at Hebrews 12 and verse
1. Now, chapter 11 here, We're looking
at 12, but chapter 11 is a whole list of witnesses by faith, Noah,
by faith, Abraham. He says, wherefore seeing we
also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily
beset us, and let us run with patience the race that's set
before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
fate, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the
throne of God. Christ died a horrible death. He died a shameful death. Shameful
in the eyes of men. Ordained of God and perfect,
but shameful to men. He died between two thieves in
what was probably the most hideous form of death that man has ever
invented on a cross. Just drowning in his own His
own body's fluids. That's a horrible death. And
He despised the shame of that death, it says here. He despised
the shame of it, but He endured it for the joy that beset before
Him. A threefold joy. The joy of His
Father's glory. See, God's a just God and Savior. He can declare sinners righteous
in His sight because Christ has established that righteousness
that enables Him to do so. So, he had a threefold joy. The first was his father's glory.
The second was his own preeminence. You see, unless Christ holds
a preeminence in your thinking, in your salvation, you don't
have salvation. He must have the preeminence.
He has the preeminence in God's salvation. And the third joy
that was set before him, his father's glory, his own preeminence,
and the salvation of his people. He saved his people from their
sins. No conditions left for them to meet. The race that's
set before us, the race that's set before Christ's people is
to look to him, take up his cross and declare the gospel of his
accomplished salvation to the world in this generation. We'll
bear shame for that. We'll bear reproach for that.
His reproach. Our friends and families will
despise our message. They'll despise our Savior, although
they won't admit it. Now, they won't despise us, because
that's unchristian for them to despise us, but they'll despise
our message and our Savior. Now, they won't say they despise
our Savior, but their doctrine that they continue in, the doctrine
we've been delivered from, says they despise our Savior. But
we'll continue to declare it because it honors God, because
it exalts Christ, and because it excludes all boasting and
sinners. And it's the only message preached
out in this world that does those three things. Listen to what
the Apostle Peter said on us, the people of God, bearing the
reproach of Christ. 1 Peter 4 and verse 12. Beloved, think it not strange
concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some
strange thing happened to you. Just stop right there for just
a second. You know, He didn't say here that that fiery trial
might befall you. No, He said, no, if you take
up this cross that I'm talking about, fiery trials will befall
you. So you don't think it's strange.
It's not a strange thing happening to you. It's a normal thing if
you bear the cross of Christ. But rejoice inasmuch as you are
partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory shall be
revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy. If you be
reproached for the name of Christ, happy, blessed are you, for the
Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. On their part, Those
who cause you to be ashamed, those who are ashamed of Christ,
on their part, Christ is evil spoken of. But on your part,
who bear that reproach, who preach of Christ, on your part, Christ
is glorified. He's glorified in this message.
He's glorified in the hearts of those who rest on his finished
work alone. One more verse, look at Hebrews
12 and verse 14. For here, in this life, we have
no continuing city, but we seek one to come. Under the law of
Moses, the worship of God was confined to one city. They couldn't
worship at one place, and that was in Jerusalem, because that's
where the temple was, that's where the altar was, that's where
the sacrifice was made. But all that distinction was
done away when Christ fulfilled all the pictures and types and
abolished that covenant by way of fulfillment. All that distinction
was done away. God is worshiped and Christ is
exalted wherever the gospel is preached. True believers are
not seeking some earthly city. We're seeking heaven itself based
on the merits of Christ's work alone. Like Adam of old, we look
for a city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. In closing, look back at Hebrews
13.10 one more time. We have an altar whereof they
have no right to eat, which serve the tabernacle. Those of us who've
come to Christ in true faith find all our acceptance before
God one place in the doing and dying of Christ alone. Our salvation
is gained and maintained by his imputed righteousness. We've
been delivered from serving the tabernacle. We did that. We sought
our acceptance based on things other than Christ's righteousness,
but we've been delivered from that. We've gone outside that
gate having been delivered from thinking that any part of our
acceptance with God comes from anything found in us or anything
that we might be enabled to do. We've seen the idolatry and dead
works of that kind of thinking and we've repented. That's why
we can be insistent. that we have an altar where they
have no right to eat who serve the tabernacle. The command of
the scriptures has come to this altar. Find your confidence in
the imputed righteousness of Christ alone. In doing so, be
assured that when Christ comes again, he's coming for you. He's
coming to take you to final glory because he's earned it for you,
and he did so when he suffered without the gate. If you've come
to Him and rested in Him, you're a part of that we. We have an
altar.